Saturday, June 16, 2007

Now, we liked the existing kitchen. Although, as you can see by the photos, there was damage to the structure. At some point in it's life, there was water infiltration into the kitchen area, so rot and mold took over:If we didn't have to live in the house, maybe we would have been able to fix and recover this kitchen, but knowing that mold was literally just around the corner, we decided to take the structure apart and install a new kitchen. When we later removed the "hardwood" vinyl strips, we found out the kitchen was not completely original to the house and had been modified; the nail holes in the concrete for support of the original structure had been filled and covered with the vinyl flooring.

Adding to that decision was the fact that a tall dividing structure enclosed the kitchen area from the space around the front of the house - the front living and dining "rooms". We figured this transition should flow better to allow use of the kitchen while in contact with guests:The picture above shows two of the 3 different existing flooring types: parquet, carpet and "hardwood" vinyl.

To bring a lot more light into the house, we started by removing the layers upon layers of window film that previous owners had installed in the front and side windows:Beautiful ceiling fan, wasn't it?.... the accumulated dust actually is visible in the picture. Aaaaaanyway, armed with razors and a lot of patience, we removed the multiple sheets of film from the windows:

When we walked through the door, we were amazed of how neglected the home had been. Below are some pictures to give an idea how much:I can honestly say that the rickety cast iron fence dividing the pool area from the front yard was the first to go... believe me, it was a pleasure!Notice the multiple layers of film in windows, stained carpet, ceiling fans instead of the original pendant globes, dirty walls, dirty windows, dirty everything...